Student gets top math score

Charlie Stoddard remembers asking his mother to buy him math books as a 5-year-old.

He has spent good chunks of the summer studying math textbooks at the library. Now a 14-year-old eighth-grader at Steamboat Springs Middle School, Stoddard is studying differential equations, coursework that math majors usually take in the second semester of their sophomore years in college.

"It's fun to manipulate the numbers and just see how the physical world works around you," he said, "because everything is based on math."

Stoddard's mathematical intrigue has earned him a unique honor -- the highest score of all Colorado eighth-graders on the American Math--ematics Contest 10. The competitive test is given to top math students in the 10th grade and lower.

There are several levels of the American Mathematics Contest -- the 8, 10 and 12 levels -- as well as an invitational and Olympiad through which the highest scoring students can compete internationally.

Stoddard also participated in the invitational exam, in which students have three hours to solve 15 problems. The average score is two. Stoddard scored six, but did not score high enough to move on. His goal is to score nine next year and qualify for the next level.

Although Stodd--ard's talents in math are unique for his age, he isn't consumed by it.